From the Polygon article:
Anyone know what this means? Obviously the exact mechanics aren’t meant to be revealed, but… what are core gameplay loops and how do you improve your characters meaningfully without affecting them?
Thanks.
They feel that achievements, appearances, pets, and mounts are not enough motivation for end-game play and are looking for other ways to provide permanent rewards outside of what players normally do that are not tied to expansion specific events or mechanics.
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Welcome to Blizzard Q&As. Where the answers don’t matter and the questions don’t count.
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Prob more time / rep gates.
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What he’s saying is that they want to find ways to make it feel like you’re truly progressing in the end-game outside of just farming raids.
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Translation - bad idea that looks good on paper but that will hasten wows demise
Pathfinder Part 3 incoming.
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Stuff like releveling every expac, regearing every tier, things that are core to the gameplay and repeated ad nauseam.
Trying to add things into the game that will make endgame feel rewarding besides yay another reskinned mount, AotC achieve, or another gear farm.
What they are specifically referring to, I don’t know. It looks like they don’t yet either, so anything we say is just speculation.
But I’d bet if they take suggestions on anything from the forums either directly or indirectly, it would be feedback on something like this. Mind you, you won’t get credit for it. 
Well core gameplay loops is clearly a breakfast cereal
I seriously admire Ion’s ability to say words that are essentially meaningless.
What a fantastic pick to be the mouthpiece of WoW’s development teams because he says stuff like the bolded text above which can then be interpreted by various unsatisfied customers as they see fit.
One person may construe this to mean that ability/spell ranks are coming back and the highest ones only drop off end game content.
Another may think that end game content will now only drop mounts.
Another may think that another rented alternative advancement system is going to go into place and give you new actives when you grind or attain new versions of artifact power.
No, why say something as adamant as “We need to add talents and be more creative with class design” when you can refer to what is effectively lawyerspeak that can simultaneously be vague and offer hope to the naive simultaneously.
Neither Greg Street nor Tom Chilton were as vague.
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I just imagine them adding in a background for landscapes that will progress from an upward incline at the beginning of the expansion to a slight decline to seem like you are moving faster on the treadmilk.
Explain please.
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Could be something like more glowy when you use x or y moves. A backflip when you bladestorm or something.
Something they said they would do for all awhile ago. Now it looks like you’ll have to earn these updates instead of them just updating the game if that’s what it is.
I really don’t know what he said means. It may as well say, “We are doing something at end game.”
If he wasn’t specific, it’s not happening.
TATTOOS!
FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING HOLY!
(sorry, sorry)
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There’s no probably about it, that’s what it means.
I’ll translate:
NO
that’ll be $3.50
Core gameplay loops are all the content that you repeatedly engage in to progress your character whether that be WQs, LFR, or Mythic raiding.
So if I understand that correctly he’s just talking about adding even MORE alternative progression paths that exist outside of those systems I mentioned above.
I really hope whatever it is is entirely cosmetic because as much as it sounds good on paper to be able to endlessly progress your character the reality is that whenever that progression is tied to an in-game power increase then it becomes mandatory and I already have enough chores that are outside of my own personal “core gameplay loop” (aka raiding) and I wouldn’t appreciate having to do even more.